Microsoft’s new move will double its AI infrastructure and cloud capacity to address the country’s accelerating demand for AI services and the company aims to offer digital skills training for more than 1.2 million Germans by the end of 2025
Microsoft reveals €3.2bn German investment over two years to expand the cloud and AI infrastructure. (Credit: Microsoft)
Microsoft has revealed its plans to invest €3.2bn in Germany over the next two years to expand the cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure across the country.
The technology company’s new move will double its AI infrastructure and cloud capacity to address the country’s accelerating demand for AI services.
Microsoft also aims to offer digital skills training for more than 1.2 million Germans by the end of 2025.
Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith said: “We see increasing demand for AI applications in key economic sectors such as manufacturing, automotive, financial services, pharmaceuticals, life sciences and medical technology.
“Because these industries are fundamentally changing due to economic change, it is important to equip companies in Germany with world-leading technology.”
According to the technology company, the expansion of the cloud region in Frankfurt am Main and the newly planned infrastructure in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) will double the country’s digital capacities.
The increase in capacity will help Germany as a location to meet the rising demand for AI-specific computing power and cloud solutions.
Besides, it can be leveraged to train and deploy new AI models and services offered by Microsoft and various other companies on the Microsoft Azure platform.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “Microsoft’s billion-dollar investment in Germany announced today is very good news for Germany as a business location.
“Microsoft is thus promoting the necessary structural change in the Rhineland region, advancing the computing infrastructure in our country and strengthening the German ecosystem around artificial intelligence.”
Last year, Microsoft announced its plans to invest £2.5bn in the UK over three years to expand its next-generation AI datacentre infrastructure in the country.
The move was expected to bring over 20,000 of the most advanced graphic processing units (GPUs) to the UK by 2026.